My Hero!

Posted by Susan

It's summer in the Midwest. It's hot. It's so damned hot!

Outside, that is.

I truly dislike sweat. Even as a child I disliked summer and being hot. I spent much of the time reading in the basement. It was cooler in the basement because there was a dehumidifier to keep the area from getting damp and moldy.

No, not a nice finished basement like folks have now. No TV. No radio. But it was cooler than any place else I could find. So I haunted the local library, took home stacks of books and spent many afternoons curled up in the basement to read.


Thanks to Willis Carrier for the modern day air conditioning that we now take for granted.

He didn't set out to invent air conditioning. The original problem in 1902 was that of a printing company in Brooklyn. They were having trouble due to the paper expanding and contracting which caused the color to run. At the age of 25, Carrier solved the problem for them by controlling the humidity.

In 1906, he solved a problem for a South Carolina cotton mill when their spindles spun so quickly that they were so hot they would burn the workers even after several minutes of being shut down.

He even solved the problem of a pasta maker who was having problems drying macaroni.

There's an excellent article from Time Magazine online which is of the opinion that Carrier is one of the Top 100 people in the 20th century.

The article also indicates he was a plain ol' nice guy:

Yet Carrier was without question the leading engineer of his day on the conditioning of air (more than 80 patents). Carrier was also an exceptionally nice man, according to all reports, modest and sometimes droll, and a farsighted manager — he devoutly believed in teamwork and mentoring decades before the management consultants discovered it. One of his other management precepts, born of his own experience, is that time spent staring into space while thinking is not time wasted.

What a concept!

Just think of the advances we've had due to controlling temperature and humidity: Film, processed foods, all the medical applications, textiles, computers! Where would we be if we couldn't keep it cooler than the outdoors in the summer?

Cooling for our own creature comforts didn't start until 1924, though, when the J.L. Hudson Department Store in Detroit, Michigan, installed three Carrier centrifugal chillers. (Can you imagine what that did for sales?) Next to follow suit were movie theaters and eventually in 1928, due to popular demand, Carrier developed the 'Weathermaker', an air conditioner for home use.

World War II and the Great Depression slowed sales, but after the war sales took off.

Now we consider it a necessity. I remember trying to sleep when it was 90 degrees and I don't want to do it again.

So thanks, Willis Carrier. You are my hero!

A Fitting, Uh, "Honor"

Posted by Susan

It's all over the web. It's all over the news. It was reported in the New York Times and USA Today.

I just can't stop chuckling.


A grass-roots initiative in San Francisco, The Presidential Memorial Commission, has collected 8,500 signatures to get a plan on the November ballot to rename the "Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant" the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant".

That's more than enough signatures to get the question on the ballot (7,168 are necessary) and according to some of the polls, it's likely to pass. The renaming would take effect on January 20, 2009, when the new president is sworn in.

Of course the Republicans have their panties in a twist. The White House refuses to comment on the article in the New York Times.

Officials at the award-winning facility say they get the joke, but follow that by saying the plant keeps the city's streets and ocean water clean. "If you are looking for a place to make a negative statement about the Bush administration's impact on the environment, this would be the last place to do it," agency spokesman Tony Winnicker said.

Heck, they probably don't want to work at a place with Bush's name on it… and do you blame them?

There are also some great comments on the Interweb, most having to do with the insult to the sewage plant. One said, "Sewage treatment plants perform a valuable public service. As a result, it does not make sense to name one after George W. Bush."

If you are a registered voter in San Francisco, you can print and sign the petition for mailing HERE.

R.I.P George Carlin

Posted by Susan

Biography of George Carlin

Verbatim transcript of George Carlin's Filthy Words which was appended to the Supreme Court Decision of Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726, 98 S.Ct. 3026 (1978). Click on "Documents" and then "Supreme Court Decision".

Rest in Peace, George. You will be missed.

When It Rains, It Sure Pours

Posted by Susan

As many of you know, I lost my Lovely Louise to adenocarcinoma in April.

I still miss her terribly.



However, grief cannot slow a caregiver down when there are other critters in the household that still need love and care.




Winston Alexander has had vague symptoms for a couple of years. He's been through all the non-invasive testing the doctor could think of. He had an ultrasound last month to see if anything definitive could be seen, but there were only "possibilities" and non-definitive answers.


Left: Darlene - Right: Winston

The doctor and I decided that it was time to put him through exploratory surgery so a good variety of biopsy samples could be obtained. Nothing concrete could be determined from visual examination during the surgery although some areas of inflammation were found which might indicate IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) and some spots that might be pancreatitis.

The doctor sent the biopsies to a university that specializes in veterinary intestinal problems. My Visa card is sagging from the weight of all this.

Winston was in solitary confinement for 10 days with 24 staples down the middle of his tummy. He looked like he had a zipper.

While waiting for biopsy results, my satellite dish decided it doesn't want to work when it storms. It not only no longer finds a signal during bad weather when it's necessary to watch the weather folks (it's been a bad spring in the Midwest for storms), when it tries to reestablish a signal, it locks onto the incorrect satellite and still won't provide television service.

I've had the dish moved. It still didn't work. The dish has been "re-pointed". It still didn't work. They're coming tomorrow to try again. Of course, I had to threaten to cancel my account because they insisted that I had to be available to them between 12 and 5. It is not acceptable to me that I miss work for their convenience. (I was fully prepared to tell them to take their dish, that the cable company would be glad to get me back!) Eventually they promised to come between 4:30 and 5.

I purchased a dehumidifier because the basement is really damp. (I also purchased a new washer and dryer at the same time so it wasn't a small sale.) I was promised that all units are equipped to attach a garden hose so the bucket will drain automatically and I won't have to run downstairs twice a day to empty it. I went to a lot of trouble to buy it from a family-owned appliance store because I thought I would get better service. After all, there aren't many small appliance stores left and local reputation should be important to them. I also had a couple of recommendations that this was a good place to shop.

The wrong part was included and there is no nozzle with which to attach a garden hose. All that was included was a straight tube with nothing on either end.

I've been "communicating" politely with the dealer for almost a month about this. I sent specific descriptions of what I received. I provided a URL with the manufacturer's Care and Use Manual that has pictures of what I should have received. You can see the nozzle on the end of the tube, right?

First they tried to tell me that I needed to drill holes in the bucket and attach the tube. (That wouldn't work with the parts I have even if that was the correct answer.) I sent the URL for the Care and Use Manual again, plus embedded a copy of the page they needed to see right in the email.

They had GE send me two screws. This isn't rocket science. A dealer should be familiar with the products they sell.

I contacted the dealer again 10 days ago and have heard NOTHING.

I sent another email last night. If I don't hear anything within a week, I'll order the freakin' part myself (I finally gave them the part number, too, because it's right there on the GE website.). I will also make sure I steer people away from this dealer any chance I get as well as sending a written letter of "disappointment with their customer service".

My rolled roof is leaking. I had to have the light kit on a ceiling fan replaced because the bulbs pop and burn out frequently. I couldn't remove the flood light over my sink. The weather strip on my garage door was in tatters. I had light switches that simply flopped back and forth and didn't turn anything on. Luckily I have a superb handy-person, The Odd Job Grrl that takes care of issues like this perfectly. She does a great job and my critters adore her.

Then, last Sunday the vet called with Winston's biopsy results. It's bad news. Winston has small cell lymphoma (or small lymphocytic lymphoma).

With chemotherapy and steroids, the median survival time is 18 to 20 months. With animals, you don't go for a cure for cancer because it's not fair for them to be so completely miserable. You just go for the best quality of life you can provide.

We've mapped out a plan of Chlorambucil ($3 a pill), Prednisolone (somewhat inexpensive) and he was already on Norvasc ($3 a pill) for high blood pressure.

Of course, the chemo suppresses white cells so he'll have to have frequent trips to the vet for bloodwork.

The MasterCard is now sagging along next to the Visa card.


Winston is unaware he is ill. He got his staples out and is now alternately annoying the other critters and enjoying a lot of lap time. He's surprised and happy that he's now allowed to have all the Fancy Feast he wants as well as a few tiny treats from my plate from time to time.

Some things never change. You look in his eyes and the lights are on, but nobody's home.

I, on the other hand, am exhausted (and poor).

iPhone Envy

Posted by Susan

OK. I admit it. I'm not as tech savvy as a lot of my friends. I'm not someone who trembles at the thought of a new electronic gadget.

I'm not at all excited about mandatory DTV.

I rant and rave about people having cell phones ringing audibly all the time.


I have an AM/FM radio in my car that's rarely turned on. There is no CD player or DVD player or GPS. (Well, it is a '92 Chevy.)


I've been sitting here at my computer for about four hours now. Just the computer and me. No TV. No radio. No iTunes. The only sound is the occasional cat complaining about the lack of a lap.

I own an iPod, but I use it as a voice recorder rather than music.



Other than a guilty game of Scrabulous (solitare) from time to time, I don't play computer games.




Yup. I'm a dinosaur. I'm hell on wheels coding COBOL programs. (Yes, COBOL still exists and "Big Blue" MainFrames still crunch the numbers for the big corporations.)





About the only thing that puts in in the new millennium is that at home I'm a Mac person. I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro. Perfect for the technologically challenged because "it just works". Really.






However, I have friends that have iPhones. They flaunt them unmercifully, showing me how they can browse the web on their phone with a touch screen. These people even have access to Google Maps when they get lost! I'm soooo jealous.

I've been following all the buzz about the expected announcement the week of June 9th and that it's probably going to be about the new 3G iPhone.



Sssshhhh. I have iPhone Envy. Please don't tell anyone.

Kindergarten Child Voted Out By Classmates

Posted by Susan

Video of an interview with Melissa Barton, mother of Alex Barton.

Alex Barton, 5, a special needs student, was voted out of his Florida kindergarten class. (CBS)

A kindergarten teacher had a 5 year-old with Asperger's Syndrome stand in front of his class and had the class verbally vote one by one whether to allow the child to stay in class. Each child apparently also voiced what they didn't like about the autistic boy.

While I don't have any experience dealing with a small child, much less one with disabilities, it sure seems to me that standing a child in front of his classmates and having them say what they don't like about him would be worse than humiliating. (Heck, it would probably put me into therapy.)

I don't know how I feel about mainstreaming children with disabilities that can be disruptive to the rest of the class. From what I understand, Alex Barton sometimes hums for up to 20 minutes and eats paper. He also has a tendency to have outbursts.

While it's not right at all to humiliate a child, is it fair to the other children that the teacher's time and attention is taken dealing with this behavior?

On one hand, having this kind of child in the classroom slows down the rest of the class.

On the other hand, is it fair to the disabled child to segregate him/her due to the disability?

Original article on WPEC News Site can be found HERE.

Only Female in Management Gets New Office

Posted by Susan

Tama, a nine-year-old female cat, wearing a stationmaster cap and a neck sign reading: "Super Stationmaster Tama" rests at Kishi Station in western Japanese city of Kinokawa Friday, May 16, 2008. Money-losing Japanese train company Wakayama Electric Railway Co. has found the purr-fect pet mascot to draw crowds and bring back business - tabby Tama. All Tama does is sit by the entrance of the station, wearing the black cap, posing for photos for tourists, now flocking in droves from across the nation. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)



Well, not really an office, but at least she has some privacy now.

Tama, a former stray 9 year-old calico in Western Japan, has been named "Super-Station-Master" of the Kishi Train Station. To save costs, Kishi Station went unmanned in 2006, but Tama stayed on.

She wears a black uniform cap and patiently poses for pictures with tourists who are flocking to meet her. Yup, that's her job and the company pays her in cat food.

Cats are considered good luck and are believed to bring business in Japan and, sure enough, Tama has brought luck to Wakayama Electric Railway Co. after she was appointed Station Master in January 2007. After her appointment, ridership rose 17 percent from the previous year. I'd say that's bringing in the business!

She was promoted in January of this year to "Super-Station-Master" making her "the only female in a managerial position" in the company's 36-strong workforce. Wakayama Electric spokesperson Keiko Yamaki said, "She now holds the fifth highest position in the company,"

Wakayama Electric has also rewarded Tama with some much-needed privacy. The new Station Master's office is a renovated ticket booth which opened in April with the attendance of Kinokawa Mayor Shinji Nakamura and Wakayama Electric president Mitsunobu Kojima.


The office guarantees her some privacy. "She declines to relieve herself when passengers are looking. We set the toilet where passengers can't see," Yamaki said.

No mention was made regarding who scoops the litter box.

Tama commutes to her 9-to-5 job (she gets Sundays off) with Toshiko Koyama, a local who runs a grocery store next door, from a shed next to the station. As Koyama tells her, "Ms Stationmaster, it's time to work," Tama comes along to the station, Yamaki said.

There are all sorts of postcards, notebooks and pins carrying Tama's picture. There's even a special 1,365 yen ($13) book of photos of Tama called, "Diary of Tama, the Station Master."

Tama is also going to be in a French documentary directed by Myriam Tonelotto about wonder cats from around the world.

Original Story can be found on www.iol.co.za.

Giving Back

Posted by Susan

Allison Brown, 5, whispers "goodnight" to the family's chocolate labrador, Molly, refering to the famous "Unsinkable Molly Brown," Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in the Brown family home in Saginaw, Mo. (AP/The Joplin Globe, T. Rob Brown)



Molly, the rescue dog, is a hero. Molly assists authorities by helping to look murder victims and survivors of natural disasters.

Then Molly needed some help, too. The 5 year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever's heart had a complete electrical heart blockage and needed a pacemaker. Although I'm not familiar with canine anatomy or medicine, I would suspect that Molly's outlook was pretty grim.

We critter-lovers know the strain that vet bills can put on the budget and credit cards, especially when it comes to something a bit more out of the ordinary. For the Browns, the decision to either put their dog to sleep or have the expensive surgery was difficult.

“So many people have lost their homes recently, I feel bad asking for anything,” Alicia Brown said. “We’re so good at helping out our community. We’re just not very good at accepting any help ourselves.”

Owners Allen and Alicia Brown got assistance with offers to help pay the more than $2,500 for the surgery, vet and travel costs after the Joplin Globe reported on her need for a pacemaker.

Medical technology company Medtronic Inc. donated the pacemaker and a Kansas businessman offered to anonymously pay up to $2,000 of the cost.

Allen, a paramedic, and Alicia, a nurse, put in hundreds of hours searching for bodies as volunteers with a local K-9 search and rescue unit. They have five dogs, two of whom are trained as rescue dogs. It takes about two years to train a search and rescue dog. Buying a fully trained rescue dog can cost up to $20,000, so these two really know about giving back to their community.

Molly got her pacemaker on Thursday at the university of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. She was scheduled to go home on Friday. She'll have be crated for two weeks and then have limited activity for a couple of months, but will be able to be back on the job after that.

It warms my heart to hear that people are reaching out to help a critter that helps us humans in desperate times. This is such a great example of giving back.

Good luck, Molly! We wish you well.

Original Story can be found on CBS News website.

Memorial Day

Posted by Susan

Ah, Memorial Day. The official beginning of summer!

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm sure looking forward to a long weekend. I've been fantasizing about an all-afternoon nap and it might just happen!



Memorial Day Weekend is traditionally a time to get together with family and friends. Unfortunately, it's also a weekend with high fatality statistics from vehicle crashes.



In 2007, in Florida there were 35 fatalities over the Memorial Day weekend. There were 145 people charged with driving under the influence and 7,128 speeding citations.

That's just in Florida!

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, last year in Missouri there were 11 people killed and 325 car crashes.






I hope everyone enjoys the weekend. There's sure to be plenty of good barbeque* and good fun. Have a great time and stay safe.





*Should there be any leftovers, please save some for me!

Digital TV

Posted by Susan

I'm pretty annoyed that the government is mandating my televisions.

Yes, I have cable. However, I also have an old black and white 12 inch that I watch from time to time. It has old-fashioned rabbit ears. It has no remote control; I have to get up to twirl the dials to change channels; it works just fine. According to the information I could find on the web, this TV probably won't work a year from now.


I also have a battery-powered portable TV that I keep in good working order. After an ice storm in 2002 and being without power for 6 days, I won't be without one.


With all the power out, sitting in a candle-lit house and doing nothing but listening to tree branches cracking and falling all over the neighborhood (it sounded like a war zone), it can get kinda scary. When the only sound is tree branches giving out under the weight of ice, it's eerily quiet otherwise. All you can do is hope that the huge trees in the neighbor's yard don't crash into your house. Every time you hear ice cracking, you tense, just waiting for the roof to cave in.


When friends were finally able to find D batteries (it took 2 full days), they scooped them up and brought some to me. My little TV was truly a life-saver. It was so comforting to have the TV playing that I left it on all night. Of course, that completely used up the batteries, but by then I was able to get my hands on more.

Yes, I now hoard D batteries and keep at least 60 in the closet.

I've been searching the web in vain for a battery-powered TV that will work with the government mandated digital transmissions and have had no luck. I've found some with battery packs that have to be recharged like a cellular phone, but none that run on batteries.

If there is no power, how the heck is one supposed to recharge the battery?

I have two corded phones for just that reason.

It sure seems like the government should have better things to do than legislate broadcasting and my personal electronics.

Sick and Tired - Again!

Posted by Susan

Once again I am SICK and TIRED.

SICK and TIRED of all the spam, phishing and just plain junk on the InterWeb.

Do they think I'm so stupid that I'll click on unknown links?


Do they think I'm so stupid that I'll click on a link that cheerfully says something about blocking spam comments on MySpace?







No, I don't want to see that someone has bought me as a pet. (Actually, I find that a bit offensive.)

Lately my mailbox has gotten jammed with junk from all sorts of "people" claiming to be from Stickam. I haven't been on Stickam in months. I cancelled my account and I'm still getting them. The really odd thing is that the "to" email address isn't mine and they're never quite the same. Apparently someone figured out a way to send mass emails or hacked the database.

No, I don't want to IM chat.

No, I don't want to see naked pictures.

No, I'm not going to "make friends" with someone/something who contacted me out of the blue.

And no, cold-hearted bitch that I am, I'm not going to help out that poor, rich widow trying to get out of Nigeria by giving out my bank account number.

Go Granny - Part II

Posted by Susan

Bernie Garcia, 83, talks on the phone with one of her grandchildren the
day after three thugs tried to take her purse at Smith's gas station.

Once again a senior citizen stands up and fights back!

Bernie Garcia, 83, was approached by a man at a gas station and he asked her for money. When she told 20-year-old Angelo Trujillo she had spent all her spare change on gas (these days we all have!), he tried to grab her purse. "But I had it wrapped around my wrist twice," Garcia said, and he was unable to pull it away.

They struggled for the purse and the great-grandmother sprayed him with gasoline. The attacker pulled her to the ground and dragged her until another man confronted him.

Trujillo took off, but a witness had gotten the license plate. Trujillo and two others were apprehended minutes later.

Bernie declined medical attention, but said she felt faint and went to bed when she got home.

Her son, a former firefighter, checked her out and found no broken bones. She had a big bruise on her hip and a few scrapes on her hands but otherwise, she's fine.

Bernie was quoted as saying,"My son said, `Why didn't you just give (the purse) up?"' Garcia said. "`Hell no,' I told him. That was my purse. I was fighting for what was mine."

While fighting back is not always the smartest thing to do (muggers might have any variety of weapons), I just love it when a would-be attacker thinks someone is helpless and an easy target, but the intended victim gets the best of them.

Winning PowerBall

Posted by Susan

I don't make it a habit to buy lottery tickets. If I think of it when I'm filling the tank, I may get a couple. I never win. Not even a lousy few bucks for matching the PowerBall.

I did win three whole dollars once a long time ago. The clerk was totally baffled because I wanted my three dollars instead of three tickets. Nope. I not only took the cash, I made my friends look at it and admire it.

I figure I have two dollars worth of fun trying to figure out what I'd do if I ever actually won.

Of course, the first thing you do is GET THE THING VERIFIED! Don't tell anyone just in case you really didn't win.

Once you decide on an annuity or cash payment, get a good financial planner and tax accountant. I want to have a pile of money big enough that I can live off the interest and never have to need a paycheck again. Always plan for the unexpected ~ like a recession. What if the interest rate goes down to 1%? 1% of $1 million is only $10 thousand. Keep in mind that's before taxes.

I'm thinking a cash payout of about $30 million so in "hard times" you'd still have $300,000 annually, probably $150,000 after taxes. Yeah. I could be pretty darned happy with that.

OK. Let's say I win the next jackpot.

After the government takes their cut off the top, that leaves $43.65 million. At 1% annually, that's $436,500. Yup, taxable. Cut it in half again to be $218,250 to spend.

I'm good with that. I would go into my office over the weekend, take the pictures out of my cube and leave my pass under my manager's phone with a short note.

Then I'd pay off my bills and my house so I'm free and clear. So the first year will be a little thinner than I'd like, but that's OK. I could "make do" for awhile.

My luxury spending would be to replace my 1992 Lumina. Nothing fancy, but something new and totally reliable. (Don't forget that taxes and insurance rates will go up accordingly!)

I would have the time to volunteer at UNICORN THEATRE because I've been working so much the past couple of years, I haven't been able to spend the time I really want to helping out.

Year two: I'd hire an assistant. Someone to do all those little things like grocery shopping, picking up dry cleaning and loading up on cat food. Maybe even scooping litter boxes.

I'd have extra to share with UNICORN THEATRE and NO MORE HOMELESS PETS IN KANSAS CITY and BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SANCTUARY and AIDS WALK KANSAS CITY.

There might even be time to sit and start working on the stack of books piling up in my library. I'd have time to give my critters the attention they deserve.

All this planning is a lot of work and I suspect this would be just the tip of the iceberg.

Maybe it's a good thing I won't win after all. I just don't have time to deal with all this!

Owen's Manicure

Posted by Susan

Seems that Walter Owen (he goes by his middle name) is ready for his manicure and a day at the spa.

Not bad considering that just 7 months ago he was a cold, wet and hungry stray crouched under a bush next to my patio.

Yup, he seems to have adjusted to the indoor life quite well!

Go Granny!

Posted by Susan

ARTICLE ON THE FOX23 NEWS WEBSITE CAN BE FOUND HERE

Here's one woman you don't want to mess with.

Even though the 95 year old woman is confined to a wheelchair, she protected herself and her home by stabbing a would-be intruder with a screwdriver every time he put his hand through her window and tried to unlock her door.

The guy didn't take a hint and continued attempting to unlock the door. Not too bright in my opinion because the woman kept stabbing him. The article says the "attack" went on for about an hour and a half until the intruder passed out and the woman called police.

The officer was quoted as saying, “What do you tell your friends in county jail, where did you get those wounds? I don't know that he's going to tell them he got them from a 95-year-old lady confined to a wheel chair."

There's a video from KTUL Channel 8 HERE. There's a commercial at the beginning, but it's worth the wait!

Some of the comments on other sites are a hoot!

• And now he is awl screwed up...
  
  
• Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.
  
  
• As experienced burglars go, you wouldn’t say this guy was a Craftsman...
  
  
• Foghorn Leghorn: I say I say the boy's about as sharp as a bowling ball.
  

And my personal favorite:

That’s the woman I want answering the phone at 3 AM!!!

Gutwrenching Decision

Posted by Susan

Back in 1992, a beautiful feral kitty came to live with me. She was terrified of everything and it took a year, working with her every night at least once an hour, for her to trust me enough to let me touch her without being bitten. It took another year to be able to pick her up without her going into a complete frenzy.

It was worth the effort.

For so many of us, our furry family members are an integral part of our lives and we cannot imagine life without them. However, as all of us critter lovers are all too aware, our critters likely will not outlive us. Even with the advances in veterinary medicine, we just can't always fix what's wrong.

Several weeks ago my Louise was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma. It was like a physical blow to my heart.

Although chemotherapy was an option, it wasn't a good one in this case. I would have done it in a heartbeat if it would grant us any additional quality time together. The only humane option was hospice care as long as she felt good and had a quality of life.

"Susan's Medical Center" immediately commenced. She tolerated all the needles, pills and supplements with grace and dignity. Who knew a former feral would allow all this?

After a week, she had gained almost half a pound. She carried her fuzzy toy around while making her funny Louise-noise. She purred and made "kitty paws" while settled happily in my lap. There was hope that things were looking up ~ for awhile anyway.

Then, almost overnight, she began getting weaker and weaker. Her legs were slipping out from under her.

When she didn't bounce back after a couple of days, I saw that her quality of life was gone. All she wanted to do was sleep in her teepee. She didn't want to eat. The gutwrenching decision was required to let her go.

The vet is the kindest, most gentle and most compassionate person I've ever known. I think it hurt his heart almost as much as it did mine.

She only got 10 days out of the deal. It's just not fair.

There is a Louise-sized hole in my heart. A Louise-less world is just not OK.

The Lovely Louise
1991-2008

Sick and Tired

Posted by Susan

I am SICK and TIRED of people not taking responsibility for themselves and their children.

I am SICK and TIRED of being denied the opportunity to make choices for myself.

I'm SICK and TIRED of being SICK and TIRED.


If you foul up and put a steaming hot cup of coffee in your lap while in a car, you deserve to have it splash out and burn you in a sensitive place.





TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS.



I should have every right to choose to choose unhealthy meals. Yup, I'll get clogged arteries and gain weight, but it's MY CHOICE. No one is forcing cars off the road to go through the drive-through at McDonald's. It's a CHOICE.


TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR CHILDREN.


If a parent is worried about a child eating crap, here's a radical suggestion: Have a balanced home-cooked dinner with fresh vegetables.






Many people, if given the opportunity, would force me to quit smoking. It doesn't matter if I'm smoking in my own home or car and not affecting their lives one little bit. These people truly wish to control my smoking habit because they don't like cigarettes.





TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF; DON'T STEAL MY FREEDOM WHEN IT DOES NOT INFRINGE ON YOURS.

What caused this rant? THIS ARTICLE! which is reporting that some common food additives are being banned in the UK because apparently they've been linked to hyperactivity and anti-social behavior in some children.

Oh come on now! If your child has a food allergy, do you allow him/her to have that food item? I sure hope not. The same should apply to children with other maladies, including ADHD.

It's my understanding that food additives and preservatives have long been suspected of having negative consequences for children with hyperactivity. Seems to me that the parents of a child with this problem should monitor what their child eats rather than force everyone to give up certain food items.

They've already legislated trans-fats in New York restaurants. (Hey! Where did the flavor go?)

It's a freakin' CHOICE, not something to be legislated.

They banned cyclamates back in 1969 which was an artificial sweetener (Yeah. I know most of the readers here at IP don't remember this. *sigh* ) in the U.S. but is still in use in 55 other countries. Diet Rite Cola was some pretty good stuff back then, in my opinion.

Why, you ask, did the FDA ban it? It seems that rats fed the equivilent of 350 cans of diet soda a day (I couldn't find out how long the rats were fed this amount), 8 out of 240 rats developed bladder tumors.







GIMME A BREAK! That's just ludicrous. I drink a lot of Diet Coke, but I don't think I could ever ingest an amount that huge.






It's time for people to take responsibility for themselves and their own families instead of trying to control the lives of everyone else in the process.

What's next? Mandatory exercise for everyone because someone's spouse or child or sister or brother is overweight?

EEEeuuuuuuu!

Unnecessary Death of a Child

Posted by Susan

As usual, I am horrified.

In Westin, Wisconsin, an 11 year old girl, Madeline Neumann, died a horrible death from diabetes. She became ketoacidotic which is a shortage of insulin causing the body to break down fat, which produces toxic acids known as ketones. There are plenty of horrible things caused by ketoacidosis such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.

Articles can be found HERE and HERE and HERE.

This girl didn't have to suffer, much less die from a very treatable condition such as diabetes.

However, it seems her parents, Leilani and Dale Neumann, thought prayer would heal her. As any diabetic will tell you, there is no cure for diabetes (Yet. They're working on it.), but there is effective treatment.

I cannot comprehend not getting medical help for a sick child, much less one who is obviously suffering and extremely ill. How can any parent be so blind? Even if a parent believes that prayer can heal their child, if the child continues to worsen, why would they not immediately seek medical help? How could they put their child in that kind of danger?

The article mentions that the parents were arrested, but apparently they were not charged and were released. "The girl's death remains under investigation and the findings will be forwarded to the district attorney to review for possible charges, the chief said."

Ack! Put 'em in jail and leave 'em there. They allowed their child to suffer terribly and die. That's the same thing as a slow murder. At the very least, it's willful neglect.

It also says that the other three children were not removed from the home. The police chief said, "There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see."

Geez! What if one of those kids gets sick? Are they going to pray some more? Didn't they learn their lesson?

Several sources indicate that the other children are, in fact, staying with relatives until the investigation is concluded. However, they all sound soft-soaped about the whole thing.

"There is no intent. They didn't want their child to die. They thought what they were doing was the right thing," the police chief said. "They believed up to the time she stopped breathing she was going to get better. They just thought it was a spiritual attack. They believed if they prayed enough she would get through it."

Sounds to me like even the police chief is trying to give them a pass on torturing and slowly murdering their daughter.

Duh. Take her to a doctor to find out of it's a "spiritual attack" or something medical. (Huh? Spiritual attack!) One article I saw said that since the child didn't have a fever, they thought she would recover. Are they back in the 18th century? Fever is usually caused by infection. It's the body's way of fighting bacteria and viruses. There are many maladies that do not have an accompanying fever. Double Duh.

I also see in THIS ARTICLE that legal action against the parents may be prevented by a Wisconsin state statute against failing to act to protect children from bodily harm.

Apparently Wisconsin statute has a ridiculous exemption for what it refers to as "treatment through prayer". How many children has that exemption murdered?

I suspect there might be more to this story because this all came to light because the child's aunt in California called authorities to check on Madeline. Even though this aunt was far away, she knew something was so terribly wrong that she called the police in Wisconsin. I'm guessing the aunt had been told that Madeline was very ill. Why else would the aunt contact authorities?

Yup. I am horrified and saddened by this senseless death.

UPDATE: ABC NEWS ARTICLE says "Gomez (the aunt) called the sheriff's office three times Sunday about her niece's medical condition, according to the Marathon County Sheriff's Office. "My sister-in-law is, her daughter's severely, severely sick and she believes her daughter is in a coma," Gomez is heard telling the dispatcher in one of the 911 calls released by the sheriff's office. "And, she's very religious, so she's refusing to take [Kara] to the hospital, so I was hoping maybe somebody could go over there."

Gomez asks authorities to send an ambulance, and warns the dispatcher that Leilani Neumann will fight attempts to intervene. "We've been trying to get her to take [Kara] to the hospital for a week, a few days now," Gomez tells the dispatcher."

Get In Line And Mind Your Manners!

Posted by Susan

In response to Pariahjane's thoughts on thoughtless commuters, I thought I'd share a pet peeve of mine: Rude people in line.


Nudging the person in front of you won't get you through the line any faster. In fact, if may slow you down because the person you just nudged could possibly take offense and have something to say about the situation.


A couple of days ago I was in the checkout line at a local grocery store. The cashier was passing my items over the scanner and a bagger was placing each item in a sack. I had noticed the lady behind me kept creeping forward with her cart and, yup, as I suspected, she rammed me in the side with the cart.

"Oops. Sorry." she murmured under her breath. (I knew she didn't mean it.)

Sure enough, she did it again. Being the pleasant person I am, I shot her the nastiest look I could conjure. However, she didn't back off more than a couple of inches.

Needless to say, bouncing her cart off my body did not increase the speed at which the cashier scanned my items.


How often have you been in a cafeteria line with a hand on each side of your tray, only to have the person behind you smash your fingers? I've had it happen while waiting for food to be handed to me as well as at the cash register.




The ultimate insult was when I was in line at the drive-through at a fast food restaurant. Yes, you guessed it. The car behind me nudged my back bumper.



There is no excuse for this type of rudeness and it truly makes me want to scream.